Local Goa News

Friday, May 20, 2016

Cabinet approves land procurement policy

PANAJI: The government has approved the state land procurement policy drafted under the provisions of the Section 107 and Section 108 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which will enable procurement of identified lands after obtaining the voluntary consent of the private land owners, subject to the payment of all his or her due entitlements, which are provided under the 2013 Act.
The policy approved by the state cabinet on Friday would be valid for lands to be used for only public projects as undertaken by the government, and not for any private projects, including those under public-private partnership.
Coming out with this information, Chief Secretary R K Srivastava said the cumbersome land acquisition exercise has now been simplified by taking advantage of the provision in the central legislation that the state government can enter into some sort of purchase of land from a private owner, after obtaining his voluntary consent, subject to all his due entitlements, which are provided under the 2013 Act.
“The extensive time usually taken for the process of land acquisition by the government would now be substantially reduced, and could be as short as say, three months,” he observed.
Speaking to the media persons at the Secretariat, the Chief Secretary said the state land procurement policy also has a provision of paying the land owner at least one per cent above the total consideration amount after paying him all his due entitlements under the law.
“So if a government department like say, public works, water resources, education or health want to procure any land for a development project then that department termed as the requiring department will submit its requirement to the district collector, after which the district collector will constitute a team under the deputy collector, with representatives from the departments such as town and country planning, forest etc on it,” he stated, pointing out, “The team will then visit the identified site, interact with the owner, obtain his or her voluntary consent, and take the approval to the district collector, who will in turn calculate the compensation amount payable to the owner, and finally the sale deed would be signed with the government approving the proposal.”
Replying to a question, Srivastava said the rates decided for purchase of lands under the state land procurement policy would be as per the notified market rates of the government.
“If the identified land has a house or cattle shed or agricultural property on it, then the owner could also be adequately compensated for their loss under the policy,” he maintained, adding that the loss of house could be compensation in the form of rehabilitation either within that land or within the vicinity of 1 km to 5 km on any government land.
The Chief Secretary also said the multiplication factor ‘2’ would be utilised while calculating the price of the land purchased in a rural area, as also multiplication factor ‘1’ would be used for the land bought in an urban area.
“This calculation straightway doubles the prevailing market value of the land in a rural area,” he maintained, informing that the rate of the land calculated so far, in either rural or urban area would further be doubled by way of providing 100 per cent solatia.
It was also informed that from the day the consent of the owner of the land is taken till such time the sale deed is signed and amount paid, the owner will gets 12 per cent interest on the decided amount. The additional assets such as trees, crops or house on the land would also get added to the amount. And finally, over and above the total consideration amount, the land owner will get one per cent extra, as an additional incentive from the government for sale of land expeditiously, for a public project.
Replying to a question Srivastava said the government was not able to acquire any land for a public project in the past three years. “Therefore, the government seriously thought about the provisions under the 2013 Act and took the legal opinion about the same,” he added, pointing out that the government is now empowered under the particular legislation to buy the land, or even take it on lease in the shortest possible time.